1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to a navigation system, and more particularly, to a method and system for a navigation system having location based services.
2. Description of Related Art
Rapid growth in consumer electronics is evident with mobility as a ubiquitous feature. Consumer electronics products, such as music players, digital camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular phones, and notebooks, offer means for users to create, transfer, store, and consume information almost anywhere, anytime.
One consumer electronics growth, where mobility is quintessential is in location based services, such as navigation systems utilizing satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. Location based services allow users to create, transfer, store, and/or consume information in order for users to create, transfer, store, and consume in the “real world”. One such use of location based services is to efficiently transfer or route users to the desired destination or service.
Navigation systems and location based services enabled systems have been incorporated in automobiles, notebooks, handheld devices, and other portable products. Today, these systems aid users by incorporating available, real-time relevant information, such as maps, directions, local businesses, or other points of interest. The real-time information provides invaluable relevant information, when available or in service areas. The relevant information is also invaluable when service is not available, as well.
Currently, there are mainly two types of navigation system having location based services. One is client based navigation system. All map content, location based services, and navigation software are stored on the client. And the client based navigation system can be specially designed standalone GPS navigation units, normally called Personal Navigation Device (PND), with large memory device to store maps, location based services, etc. on board; or using standard PDA or smart phone with memory card. The second one is thin client and server based navigation system. This is very typical of cellular phone based navigation system. In this case, the map data, location based services, and other Points of Interest (POI) data are stored at server. The data is loaded to the phone to provide navigation service through the phone, each time its user requests the navigation service.
The drawback of the client based navigation system is the inconvenience to update data or information. Also, it is more costly and typically larger in size since it needs larger memory to store large amount of information, such as maps and POI data. Because of limitation of the memory card, and the large data size such as for the street audio prompts, the typical standalone navigation device does not provide audio street name prompts. Another drawback is that some information, such as traffic routes, may be dynamic or updated in a predetermined manner while others are static, such as location based services or other points of interest. The advantage is that it can be used in areas without wireless coverage, because it does not depend on wireless service as the thin client navigation system.
The drawback of the thin client navigation system is that it always needs a wireless network to load the map information to the client to navigate. So when there is no network, the user is then unable to access the navigation service. Another drawback, as mentioned earlier, is that some information, such as traffic routes, may be dynamic or updated in a predetermined manner while others are static, such as location based services or other points of interest.
The advantage of the thin client system is that its map data is always updated because it can be done at server by the service provider, rather by users. Also the static POI data can be updated as well from server depending upon route and location. It can also provide other real time information to the thin client through wireless network, such as gas price or weather information. Also since all street audio prompts are stored at server, the thin client system can play audio street prompts, because they are loaded to the phone together with map and route information when the user requests the navigation services.
Although conventional navigation systems download present, real-time navigation data information, the conventional systems do not present convenient and meaningful information from the typical massive data downloaded of the current system. A navigation system is needed to address above drawbacks of either client based system or thin client based system, and at the same time take advantage of the merits of both systems.